22/02/2026
Dear colleagues and friends,
I am pleased to share that Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Volume 23, Issue 1 (2026), has been published under the careful and imaginative editorial guidance of Karen Perlman, PhD, LP, NCPsyA, and Rachel Altstein, JD, LP.
This issue is devoted to
Group Work and Psychoanalytic Training: Paper and Discussions
It centers on my article
“The ‘Group Turn’ in Psychoanalysis: A Proposal for Including Group Work in Psychoanalytic Training.”
Author
Stavros Charalambides
Relational psychoanalyst and group psychotherapist. Director of the Institute for Relational and Group Psychotherapy in Athens. Board member AGPA, IARPP . He lectures internationally and has been instrumental in integrating group processes, large groups, and democratic governance models into psychoanalytic training structures.
Full article link
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1551806X.2025.2588481
Full volume link
https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/uppe20/23/1?nav=tocList
The special section gathers twelve international responses engaging the proposal from relational, group analytic, institutional, sociopolitical, and democratic perspectives.
Haim Weinberg, PhD
Senior psychologist, group analyst, and Certified Group Psychotherapist with more than forty years of experience in clinical work, supervision, and international training. Author and editor of books on the social unconscious, Internet group therapy, trauma, and large group dynamics. He has led training initiatives in Asia, Europe, and North America and is widely recognized for bridging classical Foulkesian group analysis with contemporary relational and intersubjective thought. His work emphasizes complexity, dialogue, and the transformation of polarization in groups.
“A Group Analytic Social Unconscious Perspective of Psychoanalytic Training: In Search of Complexity.”
George Bermúdez, PhD, PsyD
Training and supervising analyst at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles. Former Louis Ormont Keynote Speaker at AGPA and Visiting Scholar at PINC. A leading voice in sociocentric psychoanalysis and social dreaming. His scholarship addresses racial trauma, collective dehumanization, deliberative democracy, and moral witnessing. Developer of the Open Space Dream Field model and author of widely cited articles on community psychoanalysis and the social unconscious in public life.
“From a Group Turn to a Field Turn: A Commentary on Stavros Charalambides’s Proposal for Integrating Group Work into Psychoanalytic Training.”
Gila Ofer, PhD
Clinical psychologist, training psychoanalyst, and group analyst. Co founder and past President of the Tel Aviv Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis and founding member of the Israeli Institute of Group Analysis. Former executive board member and chair within the European Federation for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. Editor of A Bridge over Troubled Water and co editor of Tolerance, A Concept in Crisis. Her work focuses on institutional reverie, dreaming institutes, trauma, conflict transformation, and the delicate balance between openness and boundary in analytic communities.
“The Social Unconscious in Psychoanalytic Training Institutes: Importance and Cautionary Comments.”
Carla Penna, PhD
Brazilian psychoanalyst and group analyst affiliated with the Círculo Psicanalítico do Rio de Janeiro. Chair of the Analytic Group Section at the International Association for Group Psychotherapy and Group Processes. Former president of national group psychotherapy associations in Brazil. Author of Inconsciente Social and From Crowd Psychology to Dynamics of Large Groups, both influential in Latin American analytic discourse. International lecturer on large group dynamics, analytic identity, and the integration of group processes into psychoanalytic training.
“The ‘Group Turn’ in Psychoanalysis: Dialoguing with Analytic Group Approaches.”
Uri Levin, MA
Clinical psychologist, group analyst, and organizational consultant in Tel Aviv. Member of IIGA and IARPP and board member of EFPP. Faculty member at Tel Aviv University where he teaches psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Provides supervision in individual, group, and institutional contexts. His work integrates psychodynamic theory with systemic and organizational analysis, focusing on authority, democratic participation, and institutional repair.
“The Historical Rupture between Psychoanalysis and Group Psychotherapy: Charalambides’ Wish for Reparation.”
Hélder Chambel, MA
Clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst in Portugal. Visiting Professor at the University of the Algarve and Vice President of PsiRelacional in Lisbon. Active in relational psychoanalysis, complexity theory, and systemic institutional transformation. His clinical and theoretical work examines hierarchical training models, trauma within institutes, and the relational reconfiguration of psychoanalytic education in Southern Europe.
“Training in Psychoanalytic Institutes: A Portuguese Experience.”
Avi Berman, PhD
Clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst, training analyst, and co founder of the Israeli Institute of Group Analysis. Former head of the group psychotherapy track at Tel Aviv University. Co editor of Sibling Relations and the Horizontal Axis and Tolerance, A Concept in Crisis. Internationally known for elaborating sibling theory and horizontality as structural dimensions complementing Oedipal verticality in psychoanalysis. His work bridges individual analysis and group analytic thinking.
“On the Contribution of Horizontality to Psychoanalysis: Elaborating Otherness in Groups.”
Marina Mojović, MA, MD
Psychiatrist, psychoanalytic psychotherapist, group analyst, and organizational consultant. Founder and head of the School for Integrative Group Analysis Koinonia Art in Belgrade and creator of the Reflective Citizens Koinonia Method for civic dialogue. President of the Psychotherapy Section of the Serbian Medical Society. Active member of IAGP, GASi, IARPP, ISPSO, and EFPP. Her work focuses on institutional bridge building, post conflict dialogue, and integrative psychoanalytic group education in Southeast Europe.
“The School for Integrative Group Analysis ‘Koinonia Art’: Emergence from Old Roots.”
Robi Friedman, PhD
Clinical psychologist and senior group analyst. Past President of the Group Analytic Society International and the Israeli Institute of Group Analysis. Vice President and co founder of the International Dialogue Initiative with Vamik Volkan and Lord Alderdice. Developer of the Sandwich Model integrating small and large group processes in conflict resolution settings. His scholarship addresses dreams, war trauma, societal matrices, and unconscious social processes.
“Adding a Social Perspective: The Advantages of Group Analysis as a Complementary Location of Cure.”
Marty A. Cooper, PhD
Interim Director and Associate Professor of Mental Health Counseling at SUNY Old Westbury. Advanced candidate at the NYU Postdoctoral Program. International presenter on race, identity, historical trauma, and the analytic relationship. His work engages gender, authority, Indigenous erasure, and institutional hauntings within psychoanalytic discourse.
“Haunted Groups: Ghosts, Authority, and Gender.”
Holly Levenkron, LCSW, LICSW
Former Director of the Psychoanalytic Training Program at the Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis in New York. Faculty member and supervisor with extensive teaching in relational psychoanalysis, affect theory, dissociation, and enactment. International lecturer within IARPP networks. Her writing integrates complexity theory, democratic pedagogy, and psychoanalytic process.
“Education of Emotions: Negotiating Difference in Psychoanalytic Training.”
Michael Korson, LMFT, CGP
Certified psychoanalyst and relational psychotherapist in San Francisco. Personal and supervising analyst at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California and faculty member at PINC and the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. Publishes on socially engaged psychoanalysis, dehumanization, institutional reform, and the expansion of analytic training toward group and community dimensions.
“Sailing to Ithaca: The ‘Group Turn’ in Psychoanalysis and in the Quadripartite Model at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California.”
Beyond the special section, the issue includes further contributions.
Erica Ehrenberg, psychoanalytic candidate, poet, and interdisciplinary thinker exploring authenticity, bewilderment, and the generative unknown in analytic work.
“The Generative Unknown.”
Ken Frank, senior relational psychoanalyst and author widely known for his writings on authenticity, mutual recognition, and analytic presence.
“Psychoanalysis, Poetics, and the Art of Not Knowing.”
Michal Aroch Tamir, psychoanalyst and clinical educator with sustained engagement in Bionian theory and contemporary technique.
“Being with ‘No Desire’ in the Consulting Room.”
Peter Kaufmann, experienced psychoanalyst recognized for his dynamic clinical voice and work on aggression, narcissism, and vitality in treatment.
“The Edgy Alter Ego.”
Shelley J. Klein, recent graduate of psychoanalytic training and emerging writer reflecting on analytic inheritance, intergenerational dialogue, and the evolving unconscious.
“Reflections on Joyce Slochower’s Psychoanalysis and the Unconscious.”
Under Our Psychoanalytic Reading:
Matt Aibel, LCSW, psychoanalyst and faculty member active in relational psychoanalysis and contemporary analytic discourse.
“Plunging in: Lauren Levine’s Risking Intimacy and Creative Transformation in Psychoanalysis.”
Julia Kirchhoff, LP, LCAT, ATR BC, psychoanalyst and creative arts therapist integrating analytic and aesthetic traditions.
“Christopher Bollas And The Analyst’s Faith.”
Steven Kuchuck, DSW, psychoanalyst, author, editor, and leading voice in contemporary relational psychoanalysis.
“Searching for Psychoanalytic Ancestors and Other Excursions in Bibliophilia.”
Rachel Sopher, LCSW, psychoanalyst and writer focusing on creativity, reading, and analytic subjectivity.
“On Not Being Able to Read: Marion Milner on Creativity and a Creative Reading of Milner.”
Rachel Altstein, LP, JD, psychoanalyst, attorney, writer, and co editor of this issue, working at the intersection of literature, law, and psychoanalysis.
“Reflections on Vivian Gornick, Re Reading, and Psychoanalysis.”
Taken together, this volume represents a landmark international dialogue on psychoanalytic training, institutional life, the social unconscious, democratic transformation, creativity, and the widening of the relational field beyond the dyad toward collective complexity.
Warm regards,
Stavros Charalambides
Volume 23, Issue 1 of Psychoanalytic Perspectives
